Premature Babies Prefer Mozart to Bach: Study

An Israeli study has demonstrated that listening to the music of Mozart is more conducive to the development of premature babies than is exposure to Bach.

Many studies have demonstrated the benefits of classical music to the development of babies. But the Ichilov Hospital research, led by Prof. Dror Mandel director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Ronit Lubetzky, the deputy director of the Department of Pediatrics, examined whether all classical compositions aid premature babies’ health or whether Mozart has a unique influence.

Twelve premature babies, born in the 30th week of pregnancy, averaging 1.2 kilos weight, were divided to three groups, who were each exposed to the music of Mozart on the first day, to Bach on the second day, and to no music at all on the third day.

The compositions chosen for the study from Baby Mozart and Baby Bach discs were calm, and not performed by large orchestras. Following only half an hour of exposure to Mozart’s music, the metabolic rate dropped by 9.7 percent in comparison to babies who weren’t exposed to music at all. Listening to Bach led to a drop of 4.5 percent in the metabolic rate, in comparison to those not exposed to music, but this drop wasn’t deemed to be statistically significant.

The effect of Mozart’s music was very swift: Ten minutes after beginning to listen to his music, the metabolic rate dropped by 4.5 percent.

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